First of all NuSpock and Spock Prime by all accounts should have lived nearly the same lives up until Kirk's academy days. There's no reason the Kelvin's destruction is going to effect his childhood and birth on Vulcan at all. Kirk definitely has a different childhood, the whole car theft thing seeming to be a daddy issue, but both Spocks grew up on Vulcan and by all accounts had similar careers until they met Kirk. So the new timeline really shouldn't have effected Spock's core behavior that much.

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You can't actually say that. NuSpock doesn't have the same career that old Spock had in TOS. Because of the destruction of the Kelvin, the Enterprise itself was built about 15 years later. . . thus, Spock and Pike (and Number One and Colt and Dr. Piper) didn't have 11 years of adventures; so the Spock in the new timeline didn't necessarily have the same influences while he was in the Academy, or afterward. . . for instance, he met Uhura 10 years earlier in the new timeline. . plus, we don't know exactly how the destruction of the Kelvin changed other things in the Federation and Starfleet (politics, diplomacy. . . was there a war/was Sarek not as home as much?), so no one's life in the new universe after that point was exactly the same.

As I said, I was citing that example of how the two different characters demonstrate emotion as a relevant contrast being the occur 15 minutes apart in the movie. They're not the same situation, but can you honestly picture Nimoy's Spock raging like an emo teen like that?

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What exactly does "emo" mean? If Nimoy's Spock had been on the ground while his planet died beneath his feet, and his connections to the billions of Vulcans snapped at that same time, plus watching as his mother, who was one second from being saved, almost literally slips from his fingers tips, you don't think he would act "emo" later, when his already fragile grasp on his emotions gets challenged? Especially about his MOTHER -- whom we know from TOS and TAS was the cause of his fights as a boy, and that he loved, but never told? As it is, Nimoy Spock is emotionally compromised because he blames himself for the destruction of Vulcan, but he is not as connected to this tragedy as new Spock is. . . Spock Prime's mother and father are already dead. . .he's not really connected mentally to the people on Vulcan in this new timeline. . . he's 130-something years older than NuSpock, has gone through Kohlinar, has died and been resurrected, has more experience being Vulcan and Human than new Spock. . . of course he is going to react differently.

Or that cocky smirk and open irritation? They're not that far moved apart. It took NuKirk all of ten seconds to provoke Spock into attacking him. In TOS McCoy was baiting Spock for the whole series and never got a rise out of him.

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I don't know what Vulcans you were watching, but it sure wasn't the ones in Star Trek. . . almost the entire race was portrayed as arrogant, sure of their superiority, cocky and self-satisfied. . . even TOS Spock wasn't immune to that portrayal at times. It took Kirk "10 seconds" because after everything that happened on that day, Spock is barely hanging on to his control as it is, and Kirk luckily picked to one thing that was shown that Spock would lose his control over, his mother and his feelings for her.

As I said, if Quinto's potrayal of a half Vulcan was a different character, he would be interesting and compelling. But by all accounts he just doesn't act like Spock did in TOS. So I'm not really sold on the new character. If you enjoy him, that's your privilege but I really think it just takes something away from the original by pretending to be genuine when it isn't.

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As BillJ said, Spock wasn't always the stoic, coldly logical character early in TOS, this Spock HASN'T led the same life as Spock Prime, and we never saw Spock under the emotional pressures he is under in ST09 in TOS. . .so really, you can't say how TOS Spock would react. . .

As BillJ said, Spock wasn't always the stoic, coldly logical character early in TOS, this Spock HASN'T led the same life as Spock Prime, and we never saw Spock under the emotional pressures he is under in ST09 in TOS. . .so really, you can't say how TOS Spock would react. . .

~FS

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Considering how utterly gutted he looked when he thought he'd killed Kirk I think snapping when his whole planet had blown up was expected.

TOS was constantly finding excuses for Spock to beat up Kirk, in "The Naked Time," "This Side of Paradise," "Amok Time" . . . whenever he was emotionally compromised in some way.

I always figured Spock smacking Kirk around the bridge of the new Enterprise was basically a homage to those scenes.

And the original Spock was certainly capable of expressing irritation on occasion. For example: just look how exasperated he gets with all that bureaucratic stonewalling in "Mark of Gideon." Not to mention the way McCoy gets on his nerves in "The Tholian Web."

And the original Spock was certainly capable of expressing irritation on occasion. For example: just look how exasperated he gets with all that bureaucratic stonewalling in "Mark of Gideon." Not to mention the way McCoy gets on his nerves in "The Tholian Web."

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Seriously, though, you make a very good point. I don't know where some people get the idea that Spock is an emotional automaton, but it certainly isn't from any Star Trek that aired in the real world. . .

As BillJ said, Spock wasn't always the stoic, coldly logical character early in TOS, this Spock HASN'T led the same life as Spock Prime, and we never saw Spock under the emotional pressures he is under in ST09 in TOS. . .so really, you can't say how TOS Spock would react. . .

~FS

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Considering how utterly gutted he looked when he thought he'd killed Kirk I think snapping when his whole planet had blown up was expected.

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The most telling scene is after the mind meld on Delta Vega. Kirk had tears down his face, and is trying hard to pull himself together. Spock Prime apologizes, saying "emotional transferrence is an effect of the mind meld."
Spock is crying his eyes out over the deaths of the Romulans and the Vulcans, but he's not showing it (although his voice did get thick and teary when he said "Jim, I just lost my planet. I am emotionally compromised.")

The most telling scene is after the mind meld on Delta Vega. Kirk had tears down his face, and is trying hard to pull himself together. Spock Prime apologizes, saying "emotional transferrence is an effect of the mind meld."
Spock is crying his eyes out over the deaths of the Romulans and the Vulcans, but he's not showing it (although his voice did get thick and teary when he said "Jim, I just lost my planet. I am emotionally compromised.")